The present invention relates to an adjustable chair for aircraft, recreational vehicles and the like, and relates more particularly to a chair having a single mechanism by means of which lateral, longitudinal and swiveling movement can be effected.
Many airplanes, particularly corporate aircraft, have club or lounge sections equipped with chairs capable of various adjustments, including fore-and-aft, lateral, swiveling, and reclining movement, or various combinations of these. At least during takeoff and landing, the chair is normally locked in a fore or aft facing position with the back in an upright position. When the aircraft is not in a takeoff or landing mode, the chair can be moved in the directions indicated, swiveled, or reclined to any desired position of the occupant, within the travel limits of the chair mechanism.
Furthermore, it has become customary to include adjustable seats in recreational vehicles to permit the driver's and passenger's seats to face forward when traveling and to face in an arbitrary orientation when the vehicle is parked.
Prior to the present invention, adjustable chairs of the type described normally accommodated longitudinal and lateral travel by tracks, with the actual movement being performed manually or by power assisting means including pins or friction locking. Heretofore, the swiveling movement of the chair has normally been indexed by means of pins.
Regardless of the type of mechanism employed for accomplishing movement in the several directions indicated, prior art adjustable chairs of this general type have been commonly characterized as having a non-rigid feeling when locked, have been relatively inconvenient to adjust by virtue of the locking pins which require manipulation by the occupant, and by the relatively limited positions of movement. Where a wide range of movement has been provided for in prior art adjustable chairs, the mechanisms permitting such adjustments have been uniformly characterized by their relatively complicated and thus costly construction.